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. 2025 Jul 2;12(7):874.
doi: 10.3390/children12070874.

Screen-Related Parenting Practices in Mexican American Families with Toddlers: Development of Culturally- and Contextually-Relevant Scales

Darcy A Thompson  1   2 , Laura K Kaizer  3 , Sarah J Schmiege  3 , Natasha J Cabrera  4 , Lauren Clark  5 , Haley Ringwood  6   7 , Estefania Miramontes Valdes  2 , Andrea Jimenez-Zambrano  1   2 , Jeanne M Tschann  8
Affiliations

Screen-Related Parenting Practices in Mexican American Families with Toddlers: Development of Culturally- and Contextually-Relevant Scales

Darcy A Thompson et al. Children (Basel). .

Abstract

Background/objectives: Screen-related parenting practices (e.g., restriction, coviewing) influence the way children use screen devices. Although children start using screen devices (e.g., televisions [TV], tablets) in the first few years of life, rigorously developed measures of screen-related parenting practices for parents of toddlers do not exist. The objective of this study was to develop culturally and contextually relevant survey measures of screen-related parenting practices for use in Mexican American families with toddlers.

Methods: Measures were developed using an exploratory sequential mixed methods (qualitative → quantitative) approach. Mexican American mothers of toddlers (15-26 months of age) participated in semi-structured interviews. Using the interview findings, domains of parenting practices across screen device types were identified, and survey items were developed. Items were administered by phone to 384 Mexican American mothers. Analyses included evaluation of the factor structure and psychometric properties of nine domains of parenting practices and evaluations of correlations between each scale and demographic characteristics.

Results: Factor analyses supported a one-factor solution for each parenting practice as follows: Restrict TV Time (8 items), Coview TV (10 items), Behavioral Regulation with TV (12 items), Restrict Mobile Device Time (8 items); Coview Mobile Devices (10 items); Behavioral Regulation with Mobile Devices (16 items), Restrict Screen Content (8 items), Allow Screen Use Around Sleep (6 items), and Allow Screen Use While Eating (6 items). The reliabilities were acceptable (Cronbach's alphas > 0.80). Hispanic acculturation, maternal age, and child age were correlated with many of the scales of parenting practices.

Conclusions: The measures developed in this study offer a way to evaluate the use and impact of screen-related parenting practices in Mexican American families with toddlers. The use of these measures will enable investigators to identify relationships among parenting practices, screen use, and child well-being, which could inform the design of early childhood interventions promoting healthy screen use in this population.

Keywords: Latino; behavioral control; coviewing; digital media; infants; parental mediation; screen device; toddlers.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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